Method of making wheel hubs



C. S. ASH' METHOD OF MAKING WHEEL HUBS Y 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Aug. 10, 1918 A TTOR/VEY Oct. 16', 1923. 1 C. S. ASH

METHOD OF MAKING WHEEL HUBS ori inal Filed-Aug. 10, 1918 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Get. 16, 1923.

STATE icEi.

CHARLES S.'ASH, OF GENEVA, NEW YORK.

METHOD OF MAKING WHEEL HUBS.

Application filed August 10, 1918,8eria1 No. 249,279. Renewed March 16, 1928.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES S. ASH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Geneva, in the county of Ontario and State 6 of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Making \Vheel Hubs, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact, description, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.-

This invention relates to methods of making wheel hubs, and is more particularly di rected to improvements in hubs designed for wire-spoked wheels and to an improved 115 method of manufacture thereof.

It is one of the objects of the invention to provide an improved hub of the character mentioned especially adapted for airplanes and possessing the qualities of lightness and 2% strength in an augmented degree.

A further object is to provide an improved and simplified method of forming such hubs of drawn metal whereby the cost is decreased and the manufacture thereof is E5 facilitated.

Other objects and advantages will be in part noted hereinafter in connection with the following description of the accompanying drawings, which illustrates an exemp- W plary, preferred embodiment of the invention, and in which- Figure 1 is a longitudinal central sectional view of the improved hub;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view of 96 metal tubing from which the hub may be made;

Fig. 3 is a similar view showing the end of the tube expanded in one step of manufacture;

450 Fig. 4 is a similar view showing the extreme end outturned to provide spoke flanges.

in another step of manufacture;

Fig. 5 is a slmllar view showing the inner walls bored in another step of manufacture;

4' Fig. 6 is a sectional view of a flat disc from which the tube may be drawn; Fig. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view of the same in one stage of drawing; and

Fig. 8 is a sectional view of the drawn as tube which may be finished as shown in F i s. 2, 3 and i.

ccordin to the present invention, the hub is ma e of drawn metal and may be fashioned from seamless tubing or be drawn 1% from the flat, as is known to the art. Refer ring more specificallyto Figs. 3*5 of the drawings, a unit section of metal tube 1 of the desired length and having uni-dimensional walls of suitable thickness is first provided. a

' In the next step of operation the two ends of the tubing are expanded, by the use of dies or otherwise, to provide integral end walls 2 of substantially unaltered thickness, but with an interiorhore diameter, indicated a113, somewhat greater than the bore diamefor, at 4, of the remaining intermediate unexpanded portions 5. It will be understood that the resultant unit having the two-dimensional diameters, may also be achieved by employing initially a tubing of increased diameter (as indicated at 3 in Fig. 3), and thereafter contracting the intermediate walls by swaging or otherwise to provide the lesser diameter (indicated at 4 in Fig. 3). In practice, the length of each expanded end wall 2 may be preferably approximately one-quarter to one-fifth the length of the uncxpanded intermediate section of the tubing, identified by the numeral 5 in Fig. 1.

In the next step of manufacture the extreme ends of the expanded wall portions 2 are outturned, also by dies or otherwise, to provide flanges 6 inclined backwardly at a slightly acute angle to the axis of the tubing, for a purpose hereinafter, described. The radial dimension of flanges 6 may substantially equal the axial length of the remaining portion of the expanded walls 2. The structure as thus presented conforms in general to the completed hub, but a final step is em ployed in the operation to render the axial bore through the tubing of uniform diameter. Accordingly, as shown in Fig. 5 and indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 4, the tubing is reamed to cut away a portion of the inner walls of the unexpanded section 5, and preferably. also, a slight surface from the axially expanded walls 2, to provide a smooth inner bore extending throughout the tube and of 300 a single uniform diameter. This operation further results, as shown in Fig. 5, in decreasing the thickness and consequently the weight of the intermediate hub walls 5, while retaining substantially the original thickness of the tubin for the spoke flanges and the adiacent ho y walls, whereby the latter are of adequate strength to resist any strains imposed thereon.

For final adaptation of the hub as thus 3w made to assembly or association with the remaining parts of the wheel, bushings 8 or other forms of bearings are seated in the ends of the tubing. The flange 6 is also punched to provide spaced apertures 9 to receive the ends of wire spokes 10 leading therefrom by suitable lacing to the tirecarrying rim. As above mentioned, the spoke flanges 6 are turned backwardly to a degree so that the plane thereof will be sub- .stantiall parallelto the plane of the spokes l0 attac ed thereto, whereby the strain between the parts is substantlally rectilinear.

Referring to Figs. 6, 7 and 8, there is shown a method of working a flat metal disc into tubular form adapted for finishing into the hub structure. That is, a disc 11 is worked by successive drawing operations (an intermediate sta e being indicated in Fi 7 into a tube (Fig. 8) having an PDer and flange 12 and a closed end 13. By thus cutting open the lower end, the further drawing and boring operations,.as above described, may be carried out, with expansion ,of the end walls, finishing and inclining the spoke flanges, and machining the bore to render it of uniform diameter, as shown in the hub of Fig. 1.

It may be stated that hubs of the construction described and made in accordance with the foregoing method combine the qualities of strength and lightness to a degree which renders them peculiarly advan tageous for airplanes, and further that such hubs of drawn metal are capable of expellitious manufacture at a very material tiecrease of cost as compared with the hubs heretofore commonly used for a similar pur pose.

As many changes could be made in carrying out the above method without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. The method of making a wheel hub. which includes expanding the walls of a metal tube at its end to increase the end borediameter, and then cutting away the inner walls of the unexpanded portion of the tube to increase the bore diameter thereof.

2. The method of making a drawn metal wheel hub of tubing, which includes altering the inner and outer diameters of part of the tube with respect to the remainder to provide an end bore diameter greater than the intermediate bore diameter, and then cutting away the inner walls of the intermediate part to increase correspondingly the intermediate bore diameter.

3. The method of,making a wheel hub, which includes expanding the walls of the metal tube at its ends to provide relatively increased end bore diameters, outturning the end parts of such expanded walls to provide spoke flanges, and then cutting away the inner walls of the unexpanded portion of the tube to provide a substantially uni diameterbore thereth-rough, with the end walls adjacent said flanges of greater thickness than the intermediate walls.

4. The method of making a drawn metal wheel hub, which includes altering substantially equally the inner and outer diameters of predetermined portions of the length of a metal tube with respect to the remainder to provide end bore diameters greater than the intermediate bore diameter, then outturning the ends of the tube to provide spoke flanges with adjacent tubular walls of the greater bore diameter, and finally cutting away the inner walls of the length having lesser bore diameter to provide a substantially uniform bore diameter therethrough, with the spoke flanges and adjacent end walls of a thickness greater than the thickness of the intermediate walls.

5. The methodof making a wheel huh, which includes working fiat stock into substantially tubular form with expanded ends. and then machining the inner walls to provide a bore of uniform diameter therethrough with middle walls of relatively lesser thickness than the end walls.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature. in the presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES S. ASH.

\Vitnesses:

J. R. WATSON, 'H. E. VAN HORN. 

